The product is the experience is the brand

Wealthify approached True in 2015 with a name, a back end system and a bold ambition: to democratise the world of wealth management and make investing an option for everyone.

Challenge

From a blank sheet of paper, we had to create a brand, define a proposition and design an experience that made investing feel like a positive and rewarding thing to do. We had no advertising or media, but post-launch the business attracted £1.4m in Seedrs crowdfunding. Techworld has since named it one of the top 10 Fintech startups to watch.

Strategic Direction

Investment favours the wealthy – it’s risky and few of us are experts. And the ‘know-how’ you need doesn’t come cheap. We saw Wealthify as a powerful democratising force that could make the complex simple and the exclusive accessible. Our model was other platforms that used brilliant product experience to simplify complex skills. Instagram for photography. Pinterest for interior design. Airbnb for finding cool places to stay. Each made us feel like instant experts, and we wanted this feeling for Wealthify, since confidence is a rare commodity in finance. People find investment scary and confusing. As a result, inertia rules. When it’s this easy to get it wrong, doing nothing is the easiest way to feel smart.

Wealthify represented a better way. We defined the brand experience as the shortcut to smart - a single-minded journey accelerating users from a place where they knew nothing about Wealthify, to one where they felt willing to invest.

Creative Solution

Our aim was a brand experience worthy of its ambition to make wealth management accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy. That egalitarian purpose served as our inspiration.

That meant no jargon, no complex processes, no percentage points and graphs. Just small, achievable tasks – it makes things easier and, besides, the brain loves them. Questions that are easy to answer. Subtle navigation cues to prompt interaction. Sliders for every variable. Animation to speed up waiting time. Every interaction designed to reward.

We worked closely with the FCA and Wealthify’s compliance team to put users in the driver’s seat, while still putting the brand’s proprietary technology – its carefully constructed algorithm for each risk level – front and centre. We turned them into risk profiles, letting people self-identify on a scale from cautious to adventurous, before embedding them as the W logo’s building blocks.

Standing out visually was relatively easy. Websites in the sector are clinical, dull, with too many words. Wealthify is upbeat and colourful. Its visual identity is bold, idiosyncratic and defiantly for the people. Proud to be part of a new wave of investors, speaking in simple, natural language.

Business Impact

It worked. At launch, a third of people who left an email invested, helping the platform achieve a £1m target within two
months and a rating of 4.48/5 on reviews.co.uk. In the first year Wealthify grew from three people to thirteen, launched its mobile app and won two
Digital CX Innovation awards (Financial Services and 2016 Digital Experience, beating LV and Nationwide).

In October 2017, Wealthify was bought by Aviva and will soon be available to millions of UK customers through the MyAviva hub and app.

“From branding and positioning to defining and fine-tuning a truly delightful customer experience, we’ve helped Wealthify create an outstanding new service. We are immensely proud of its success.Richard McCloskey, Senior Account Director